Raven Fork

playing with fire on the far right heading into the curtain

Going big in an open canoe

Beep Beep!!

View from the top - entrance.
Second drop - about 8 ft into a hole, which you can't see in the photo.
Top View - Ted drops in further.
Ted looks quite small now - big curler on the right, hang on.
Ted disappears - barely visible on right in curler.
Bottom view - Jerry appears, continuing the sequence from above, barely visible on left.
Final drop - taken from below. A hell of a rapid!
Bottom view....many features don't show here, but penetrate the entrance wave high on right, and brace into a wall shot at the bottom right. Boater is barely visible entering the wall curler.
The size of this rapid doesn't show well - look for the boat upper left.
Just cleared the mushroom rock...head left.
Heading left for the next slide - stay away from the undercut right boulder.
Bottom slide.
Runout at the bottom.

Ravens TR New [add to watch]

Forum: BoaterTalk

Date: Mar 21 2005, 16:41 GMT

From: waterfrk09

As TDUB suggested and our group confirmed on Saturday, you can get down as low as 4 in. On Saturday the level was exactly that. The road leading to the old railroad bed was blocked by a truck so we opted to make the hike up and over. The hike sucks, just shoulder it and go. 2 miles up and 1 down felt about right.

It being the entire groups first time, we took every bit of daylight we had and scouted everything. A summary of the rapids at this level:

Big 15 boof up top with large wood exit, sketchy but runnable, easy portage on the left

Lord of the Rings

Date: Jun 02 2004, 14:13 GMT

From: SEBoater

Anaconda (has wood)

Headless Horseman

Right Right

? (has wood)

Jedi Training (tree @ top, but room to get under it)

?

Mortal Combat (wood, but easily avoided)

Wet Willey

Big Boy (wood)

?

?

Atomic Elbow Cruncher

Mike Tyson's Punch Out

Harjes' rapid

Caveman

the Mangler

the question marks have names, but I'm not positive on what they are. the warm-up starts out big & then it gets bigger.

& a few in the boogie water that would probably have names if they were on any other run.

Ted

From Leland on Boatertalk:

Manuel at the takeout likes Budweiser. (they usally get him a 12 pack inexchange for parking privilidges)

He's a super cool guy to talk to as well - been all over the world.

On the drive up to the putin hike there is an almost exposed drain pipe in the road. BE AWARE OF THE PIPES AND DON'T BREAK THEM!! We damn near lost access due to someone driving over this pipe, breaking it, and pissing off the folks who live up there. The pipe is right after you turn right onto gravel at the top of the driveway. or at least in the first couple hundred yards. I think it's on the right side of the road (showing in the rut) but I haven't been up there in a while so that could be wrong.

The put-in and take-out are both on private property, the bridge and 'public' road are actually tribal land, and the whole thing is such that it's a miracle we have access at all. don't fuck it up.

L

From Leland, on boatertalk:

Ravens: 569

Toxaway: 596

Road Prong: 616

book is coming right along....only another month or two till the writing is all done!

Leland

From Chris Young on Boatertalk:

about Ravens put-in/take-out (please read) New

Forum: BoaterTalk

Date: Jun 02 2004, 23:06 GMT

From: BAyoung

recently people have been abusing the generosity of of the locals. The nice man who allows us to take out on his land usually receives some compensation (beer or smokes) but people have just pulled up and parked without asking. Also people who have not made it all the way up the put in raod have left their cars blockin gthe road. this not only prevents others from getting up, but specifically their is a landowner who lives up there and this is essentially his driveway. I would encourage people not to discuss the details of where the put-in/take out are on this board due to nature of the situation on tribal lands. those who go to the raven can easily call someone who has been for the necessary details. i would hate to lose this resource as there are no other backups available and people put in a lot of work to establish this. Thanks. -Chris Young

Ran it today with Ted, Ben, Andy, Payton, and myself. The Oconaluftee peaked at 2500CFS when we put on. The gauge at the bridge registered 20inches. The drop below headless horsemen has new wood in it. The drop below caveman also has wood in it. Run far left on that one. Caveman, Mortal, Mike Tyson, Headless, and Anaconda were clean of wood.

Scott

the steepest mile around here (western nc) is the raven's fork, but there are several portages:

a short partage for some wood in the third rapid - but the rapid was run pre-wood.

portage around hail mary which you can scoot over in your boat (has been successfully run once by tao, but it didn't look pretty).

portage at the mangler - this drop still hasn't been run.

even with those portages and another at big boy, i ran more hard rapids in a mile there than i have anywhere else. maybe run 'em again tomorrow...

Leland

Wood in Big Boy. New

Forum: BoaterTalk

Date: Jun 20 2003, 12:38 GMT

From: SEBoater

right right is clean

the log is gone from the pool @ jedi training

thw log in the lead in to mortal combat is gone

new wood between atomic elbow crusher & mike tyson

the log in mike tyson, at the top boof, is gone

2 trees have fallen @ the top of caveman, several branches are hanging halfway in the first drop. it would be easy to cut them out with a small hand saw.

Thursday

Oconluftee @ 850

bridge guage @ 12'

Ted

From Clay Wright from Boatertalk, March 1, 2001:

WOW:

went back to the Raven Fork yesterday and it is even better with higher water. We had about 1' 3' on the 'Tony Robinson' guage - a good bit higher than the 'Freshwater' footage. Big group of 8, but great weather and we all had good lines. No broken boats, paddles, bones etc.

Highlights:

Daniel D's backward 'anaconda' run. So good he went back and came down backwards again.

The surfs at Headless Horseman

Running Leelans's new 'waterspout' line blind (3'wide exit)

Pat Keller surfing the 1/2 way hole in Mortal Kombat.

My piton of the log about 2.5' above the water just below.

Pat's near 'face shot' into 'elbow-basher' wall.

Mike Tyson's punch-out -

- this is now one of my favorite rapids ever.

10' ledge into a long curler-packed 30' slide and off about 20' vert. Like a creek-version of Oceana after an approach series. Big trip highlight.

The Negatives:

The hike-in. over one log, under the next for 2 1/2 miles.

Continuity: pool drop, but a blown skirt or broken paddle could spell disaster. At this level, set safety below every rapid.

Cold: about 20 degrees colder in the gorge than on the hike.

Walking Big Boy:

long and steep and loose - makes you feel like hucking and hoping . . only the next 2 rapids aren't friendly at all. We hiked the set.

The other portages:

some BAD undercuts/logs etc along the way.

Daniel's near first Descent:

only one drop still unrun, and Daniel D just about dropped in backwards. Good thing he's such a scrambler. All those 200% days on the Green really paid off.

Daniel, Jason Hale, and Al G hittin it again today.

Good luck, boys -

Clay

The kids take a look at the warm up rapids.

Aerial shot of Big Boy from a Cessna 172.
Flying down Raven's Fork Gorge in a Cessna 172.
Flying down Raven's Fork Gorge in a Cessna 172.

Photo of Trip Kinney running the entrance to Caveman, by Teresa Gryder. The drop in the background is Harjes Rapid. Behind that is Mike Tysons Punchout.

30 ft sheer drop; rocks right and trees left in the landing pool - we walked, but it's been fired up by several folks. Couldn't tell how deep the pool is - scenic spot for a photo. Ted has his 'stinging nettles protection pants' on - good idea for hike in trail.
Boof above Big Boy